Monthly Archives: March 2016

The Atmosphere of Venus

Posted on March 14, 2016 by sarabkeller

I have always been oddly fascinated by Venus. Not only is it the Roman name for arguably the most interesting (and controversial) Greek Goddess, Aphrodite, but it also has a lot of really fascinating characteristics. The surface of Venus is so hot that robotic probes wouldn’t be able to last for very long on it, […] Continue reading →

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Pillars of Creation

Posted on March 14, 2016 by jasperluastronomy

The above photo is a picture captured by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope of what is now known as the “Pillars of Creation.” Located in the Eagle Nebula, which is around 6,500 – 7,000 light years away from Earth, the structures are named as such because of their pillar-like shape, as well as because the gas […] Continue reading →

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A Natural Lightshow

Posted on March 14, 2016 by lindseynestor

When I think about light shows, I think about Disney World. Every night in the Magic Kingdom that have a “lightshow spectacular” full of elaborate parade floats decked out in incredible light schemes set to music. The show is pretty cool, but there’s one even cooler that our Earth puts on every night all on […] Continue reading →

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New Destinations for New Horizons

Posted on March 14, 2016 by lindseynestor

The New Horizons space probe was launched in 2006 and just last year gave us the coolest Pluto pictures ever taken on a super cool mission. This probe is still kickin’ it out in the solar system today, and has taken up a new mission: a flyby of 2014 MU69, scheduled for January 1, 2019. 2014 MU69 is an […] Continue reading →

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Forgotten, but not always gone: the various fates of planetary probes

Posted on March 14, 2016 by d51blog

  Bad news: your favorite space probe has been deactivated or worse – its power ran out. What’s the next step? For us as humans, tears for what we’ve lost but ultimately, hope – as long as the government (or Elon Musk) cares, more things will be shot into space. For the space probe, well, that can […] Continue reading →

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Problems of Nuclear Fusion for Energy

Posted on March 14, 2016 by jasperluastronomy

Scientists have known how to use the process of nuclear fusion as a weapon for over 50 years at this point. However, we have yet to find a way to repurpose it as a safe, nearly unlimited energy source. One of the main issues that researchers are facing with trying to tackle this issue is […] Continue reading →

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Blog #5 Venus and Venera 7

Posted on March 14, 2016 by seanmcsolsys

Barely a year after we landed a man on the moon, one of our space probes successfully landed on an alien world and transmitted data back to Earth. The Soviet space probe Venera 7 was the first time a lander had survived a surface landing on another planet, even with a damaged parachute. Despite the […] Continue reading →

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Gravity has waves?

Posted on March 14, 2016 by nedastro2110

Admittedly, I am late on the whole gravitational waves discovery, however I think that this video above is probably the best explanation as to what gravitational waves are and how scientists actually managed to find evidence for the waves. The way that scientists actually discovered the waves fascinated me most in all the of news […] Continue reading →

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The Voyager Mission

Posted on March 14, 2016 by clharrell

Launched in 1977, the Voyager 1&2 continue to explore deeper into space than any instrument ever before. Using geometries and precise calculations, the space probes were able to perform flybys of Jupiter, Saturn, Titan, Uranus, and Neptune. Upon completion of the primary objectives, they were assigned the new mission of exploring further and further away from […] Continue reading →

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The Formation of the Solar System

Posted on March 14, 2016 by clharrell

The general consensus amongst astrophysicists is that our solar system was formed through a process of gravitational collapse of a dense cloud. Over time, a large portion of the mass settled at the center, forming the Sun. The formation of the sun produced a swirling disk called a solar nebula. This disk of matter orbiting […] Continue reading →

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